Electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems have employed either reusable EAS tags or disposable EAS tags to monitor articles to prevent shoplifting and unauthorized removal of articles from store. The reusable EAS tags are normally removed from the articles before the customer exits the store. The disposable tags are generally attached to the packaging by adhesive or are disposed inside the packaging. These tags remain with the articles and must be deactivated before they are removed from the store by the customer. Deactivation devices use coils which are energized to generate a magnetic field of sufficient magnitude to render the EAS tag inactive. The deactivated tags are no longer responsive to the incident energy of the EAS system so that an alarm is not triggered.
In one type of deactivation system the checkout clerk passes the articles one at a time over a deactivation device to deactivate the tags and then places the articles into a shopping bag or other bulk container. This system employs one coil disposed horizontally within a housing. The clerk moves the tagged articles across the horizontal top surface of the housing such that the tag is disposed generally coplanar with the coil.
Another deactivation system utilizes a housing having a cavity with three sets of two coils each disposed around the cavity in respective x, y, and z axis planes, such that there is a coil located in a plane parallel to each side of the cavity and two coils disposed around the cavity with one being near the top and the other being near the bottom of the cavity. The checkout clerk places a bag or bulk container into the cavity and then places the tagged articles into the bag. After all of the articles have been placed into the bag or when the bag is full, the clerk energizes the coils to deactivate all of the EAS tags in the bag. The clerk then lifts the bag out of the cavity. This system provides deactivation of multiple tags at one time and does not require specific orientation of the tags.
Many retail establishments having high volumes find it desirable to expedite and facilitate the checkout process including the gathering of data about the article being purchased and the deactivation of the EAS tags. The data required by many retailers includes article identification, the price of the article, and other information for inventory control. The bar code labels in current use are limited in the amount of data that can be provided, and the checkout clerk can have difficulties getting the proper line of sight between the bar code label and bar code scanner thereby slowing the checkout process.